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"We Beheld His Glory"
He to whom you have just listened, Spencer Woolley Kimball, is God's prophet to all the world. Not only are the heavens not sealed, as many suppose, but a living prophet is here admonishing and counseling and is available to all who will listen. He is God's anointed for all mankind to follow.
I ask the Lord to bless me as only He can that I might communicate to you the desires of my heart at this time.
Next Sunday is Easter. For a brief few hours many in the world, believers and nonbelievers, will have recalled to their minds through pictures, stories, and messages in the media or from church pulpits the final events culminating in the death and resurrection of our Lord.
The fragmentary accounts of the Savior's brief ministry are sufficient to give us at least a small feeling of His great love. His desire is to help us. He will give to each of us as much of His own spirit as we are prepared to accept. His work and glory is to save all mankind. As I read and ponder Christ's teachings, given to help us understand His purposes, and as I witness the miraculous events occurring today in the spreading of His work, I feel a swelling in my bosom—a testimony of their eternal truth.
Shortly before the Savior's betrayal and the subsequent events that will be celebrated next week, an event now known as the Transfiguration occurred, which I am sure was meant for our spiritual enlightenment as well as for those who were personal witnesses.
The New Testament writers tell us the Savior took with Him the three dearest and most enlightened of His apostles and went up a lofty mountain—Luke says simply "a mountain" (see Luke 9:28)—to find a secluded spot where He could kneel in prayer and prepare for the events soon to come.
It must have been early evening when the Savior ascended the mountain with those three chosen witnesses—James and John, known as the "sons of thunder," and Peter, the "man of rock." Perhaps Jesus felt not only a sense of the heavenly calm which that solitary opportunity for communion with His Father would bring, but even more, a sense that He would be supported in the coming hour by ministrations not of this earth. He was to be illuminated with a light which needed no aid from the sun or the moon or the stars. He went up to prepare for His coming death. He took His three apostles with Him in the belief that they, after having seen His glory—the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father—might be fortified, that their faith might be strengthened to prepare them for the insults and humiliating events which were to follow.
We learn from what has been written that the Savior, finding a secluded place, knelt and prayed; and as He prayed to His Father, He was elevated far above the doubt and wickedness of the world which had rejected Him. As He prayed He was transfigured. His countenance shone as the sun, and His garments became white as the snow fields above them. He was enwrapped in an aura of glistening brilliance—His whole presence reflected such a divine radiance that the light of the sun or the white of the snow are the only things to which the evangelists can compare that celestial scene. Two figures appeared by His side. There stood by Him Moses and Elijah. When the prayer was ended, the coming ordeal undoubtedly accepted, then the full glory fell upon Him, from heaven—a testimony of His divine Sonship and power.
Luke's account indicates that the three apostles did not witness the beginning of this marvelous transfiguration. The three apostles, as they would later be at Gethsemane, were heavy with sleep, the account says. But they were suddenly startled into wakefulness. Then they saw and heard. In the darkness of the night the apostles saw an intense light and the glorified form of their Lord. Beside Him, in that same glory of light, were two persons whom they knew or heard to be Moses and Elijah. Undoubtedly they spoke with Jesus of His coming death at Jerusalem.
As the vision began to fade, Peter, the account says, spoke the first thoughts that came to his mind, and, apparently anxious to delay the departure of the heavenly visitors, said: "Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee and one for Moses, and one for Elias." (Luke 9:33.)
They may have been surprised at the inappropriate proposal made by the eager Peter, who would yet learn the meaning of the night's events. But even as Peter spoke, a bright cloud of brilliant light overshadowed Jesus and his heavenly visitors, Moses and Elijah, and also the three apostles; and a voice was heard: "This is my beloved Son: hear him." (Luke 9:35.)
The three apostles fell prostrate and hid their faces. How long it was before Jesus came to them and touched them is not clear from the account; but when they raised their eyes, it was all over. The bright cloud had vanished. The gleams of light, the shining countenances had passed away; they were alone with Jesus. Now only the light from the stars was on the mountain slopes.
After such an experience, the apostles may have hesitated to rise; but Jesus, now appearing as they had seen Him before He knelt in prayer, touched them saying, "Arise, and be not afraid." (Matt. 17:7.) He was their dear friend.
The day was probably dawning as they descended the mountain. Jesus instructed them to tell no man until He had risen from the dead. The vision was for them; it was to be pondered over by them in depths of their own hearts. They were not even to tell the other apostles. They kept Christ's instructions but could not understand the full meaning. They could only ask each other, or wonder in silence, what this resurrection from the dead could mean. But they now knew more fully than ever that their Lord was indeed the Christ, the Son of God.
Though difficult for us to understand, Jesus himself must have been strengthened and sustained by Moses and Elijah to prepare Him for the suffering and agony ahead for Him in working out the infinite and eternal atonement of all mankind. An angel from heaven would again in a few days strengthen Him when He would sweat great drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The three chosen apostles were taught of His coming death and also His resurrection, teachings that would strengthen each of them in the eventful days ahead.
Testifying later, John said, "We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father" (John 1:14); and the apostle Peter, speaking of this personal experience, wrote: "For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
"For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
"And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount." (2 Pet. 1:16–18.)
Peter, James, and John—they alone beheld the glory and majesty of the transfigured Jesus and undoubtedly received the keys of the kingdom. These three were yet to be taken to a spot in Gethsemane where they would behold his suffering as He took upon Himself the sins of the world that He might redeem us from the Fall and through His resurrection demonstrate to us that He is the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh and show unto us that He is the Redeemer of the world.
These same three witnesses who were on the mount—Peter, the senior of Christ's apostles, and James and John—appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in 1829 and conferred upon them the Melchizedek Priesthood and gave to them the keys of the kingdom and apostleship. Christ Himself, followed by Moses, Elias, and Elijah, appeared to Joseph and Oliver in the Kirtland Temple, giving authority and committing other essential keys of this dispensation. The Prophet's own words of this event record:
"In the afternoon, I assisted the other presidents in distributing the Lord's Supper to the Church, receiving it from the Twelve, whose privilege it was to officiate at the sacred desk this day. After having performed this service to my brethren. I retired to the pulpit, the veils being dropped, and bowed myself with Oliver Cowdery, in solemn and silent prayer. After rising from prayer, the following vision was opened to both of us. …
"The veil was taken from our minds, and the eyes of our understanding were opened.
"We saw the Lord standing upon the breastwork of the pulpit, before us; and under his feet was a paved work of pure gold, in color like amber. …
"I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father. …
"After this vision closed, the heavens were again opened unto us; and Moses appeared before us, and committed unto us the keys of the gathering of Israel. …
"After this, Elias appeared, and committed the dispensation of the gospel of Abraham, saying that in us and our seed all generations after us should be blessed.
"After this vision had closed, another great and glorious vision burst upon us; for Elijah the prophet, who was taken to heaven without tasting death, stood before us, and said: …
"Therefore, the keys of this dispensation are committed into your hands; and by this ye may know that the great and dreadful day of the Lord is near, even at the doors." (D&C 110: Chapter heading, 1–2, 4, 11–13, 16.)
The divine keys, power, and authority were committed by heavenly messengers to Joseph Smith in this the dispensation of the fulness of times. Those keys—the same that were delivered to Peter, James, and John on the mountain—authorize us to carry the gospel to all nations and declare the power, glory, and majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ and that the day of His coming is near. The prophet of God, to whom we have listened this morning, holds these keys and authority today. We invite people everywhere to inquire further into this divine message which we have to offer to all mankind.
I testify in all sincerity to the truth of these things, in the name of Him whom we honor, worship, and love as our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus the Christ. In His holy name, amen.


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THE CHINESE WRITER Lao She didn't wrap up his stories with tidy endings. You can always run the unwritten sequels in your head. This was one of the many ways he differed from mainstream Chinese writers.
Born in Beijing into a Manchu family in 1899, Lao She grew up apart from the majority Han population. When he was still an infant, his soldier father was killed during the foreign occupation of the city in the aftermath the Boxer Rebellion in 1901. A graduate of Beijing Normal University, he was deeply influenced by the radical upsurge of the May Fourth Movement following China's disappointments at the Versailles Peace Conference at the end of the Great War. From 1924 to 1929 he lived and worked in London teaching Chinese (his pupils included a young China-besotted Graham Greene) and was greatly influenced by contemporary English literature. He developed a deep appreciation of Dickens, Joyce, and the Bloomsbury Group, among others. Returning to China he chose, against the mainstream once more, to write in the vernacular (baihua) style and make China's common people his subject.
Set in the first half of the 20th century, his work describes the lives of dispossessed Chinese: Mr Ma and Son, his London novel, describes the experiences of being a Chinese in a Yellow Peril-obsessed Britain of the 1920s; Crescent Moon describes a family's impoverishment and descent into prostitution; Rickshaw Boy, perhaps his most important and enduring novel, tells the futile and desperate story of a Beijing rickshaw puller; and Teahouse is a sprawling social commentary of one Chinese family from the late 19th century to the cataclysmic year of 1949. Along the way he produced numerous short stories, plays, and even an early Chinese science-fiction novel, Cat Country, which imagined a Chinese astronaut stranded on a Mars populated by debauched and decadent drug-addicted cats. His readers understood his commentaries on contemporary China, but the godfathers of China's literary establishment didn't always appreciate his modernist critiques and vernacular style — especially after the revolution, when Lao She fell foul of Mao's Red Guards.
Like so many other talents — Auden, Borges, Nabokov — Lao She was ultimately overlooked by the Nobel committee in favor of safe mediocrities. It's unlikely the Nobel would have given him any greater intellectual autonomy in Mao's China. Indeed it would probably have merely incited the philistine Red Guards to greater heights of belt-whipping and vitriolic denunciation. And there is the possibility that for Lao She winning prizes wasn't important. He never, to my knowledge, said he wanted the Nobel. What if high hopes followed by sinking failure and despondency were what really drove the man to write?
You can argue that a Nobel may have allowed Lao She to speak and exposed the plight and hopes of his protagonists to a wider audience. The Nobel might have allowed young Ding from Lao She's 1935 short story of the same name to gain recognition for his achievements and for those of his country as a newly minted republic. More might have met the hopeful Ma Wei of Mr Ma and Son, the young Chinese protagonist full of hope and belief in the advances of Western society and struggling to make his way in a 1920s London that sees him through a suspicious lens and treats him as a second-class citizen. Lao She's characters might have been able to shout louder — the prostitute of Crescent Moon dreaming of an ideal life yet mired in inescapable poverty; Camel Xiangzi pulling his rickshaw endlessly around the dusty streets of Peking for pennies in Rickshaw Boy; the few dissidents who resist the slide into drug addiction and refuse to be ruled by the corrupted cats of Mars in Cat Country. These were Chinese voices largely unknown to non-Chinese audiences. This lack of recognition contributed to these figures' marginalization.
A prize just might have also allowed Lao She to avoid the final controlling gesture he ultimately chose. Surely his suicide by drowning was uncharacteristic of both the writer and his creations, but was characteristic of being on the wrong side of history at a time of madness. None of Lao She's heroes totally give up. They struggle on regardless (but not without some resistance). Sure, they rebel a bit, they have a go, try to change fate, find luck. Ma Wei throws off insult after insult in his attempt to be a successful London businessman and support his father. The rickshaw boy, Camel, aspires to have his own rickshaw someday and perhaps control his own destiny. Corruption seems absolute, but Lao She hints that, perhaps somewhere, there's a cat on Mars that can become a leader. His characters don't all exactly fail, but it's invariably one step forward, two steps back. What else to do but try? What does Ding, Lao She's most overtly modernist of pathetic heroes, proclaim after the winners in the New China of the 1930s repeatedly reject him and declare him a failure? Triumphantly he declares (or rather wheezes, as he's a touch tubercular), "I am China's Apollo," and who's to say he's not? Who's to say (after a setback or two) Ma Wei can't conquer London, Camel can't pull his own rickshaw, and Ding can't become a winner? Certainly not Lao She.
Of course we can overcome, at least some of the time. We're just not always certain when or how. Lao She's life and writing was, I'd argue, all about pushing through the disruptive dramas (eating plenty of that "bitterness" the Chinese are supposed to be so good at munching on) to achieve something. Invariably his characters end up outsiders, like their creator — a member of the once dynastic but now marginalized Manchu minority in China, a Christian in a country that adopted other gods, a Chinese demonized by popular culture in "Yellow Peril" London, and, finally, a resolutely unideological man among ideology junkies in Cultural Revolution China.
At times his purposeful nonpartisanship was beneficial — in observing London and its inhabitants (Mr Ma and Son), in warning of the inherent corruption of political dogma (Cat Country) or, more practicably, and in real life, being able to bridge the divides in the All-China Resistance Federation of Literary Circles in World War II. Elected Chairman of the organization, he alone among China's notable writers was able to stand above Party politics and ideology and unite the country's creative community to encourage the fight against Japan with patriotic plays, stories, and operas. But ultimately, his nonpartisanship was his downfall. Ideology itself became national religion and publicly worshipping its icons (the Party, the Little Red Book, Chairman Mao) became mandatory. Opting out was no longer an option — and Lao She's conspicuous lack of participation drew all the wrong sort of attention.
Even if the Nobel had allowed Lao She's characters to reach a wider audience and to speak of their suffering and dreams, it's unlikely it would have made life easier for their creator. The Nobel is and was always a major global media event — it would probably not have allowed either a retreat into solitude or provided a free pass to be nonpartisan in Communist China. Perhaps exile? But for many people, Lao She included I suspect, exile is no kind of life, and where to go? Both the United States and Red China changed the ending of his classic novel Rickshaw Boy. Eventually Mao courted him, asking him to be a voice of the revolution. Lao She showed a rare optimism and opted for the PRC.
His attempt at accommodation with the Communist Party, with its cultural tsars, its ideologically fueled cadres, ended in failure. As Anne Witchard writes in Lao She in London, her study of the author and his time in Europe (that places him at the heart of the international Modernist movement), Rickshaw Boy was about, "the futility of individual struggle in an unfair society." Consumer capitalist America needed a happy ending to have a bestseller. In the People's Republic in 1954, Lao She was forced to write a "self criticism" as an introduction to the book. He must have seen then that his own plight was futile (the cats were now firmly in control of Cat Country). Surely to excise the final chapter of a book, as the editors of the American Book-of-the-Month Club did in the mid-1940s, and then the cultural commissars of the Chinese Communist Party's censorship apparatus did the following decade, is to hack away at his soul somehow, electroshocking the text, effecting a literary lobotomy.
In Communist China, Lao was schmoozed by Mao's smiley-faced Zhou Enlai, the chairman's more internationally presentable and cultured right-hand man, and kept busy with delegations from fraternal friends and nonaligned nations, but essentially neutered. It was all behind him — his time abroad rendering him suspect, his May Fourth influences largely despised, Rickshaw Boy rewritten for him, most of his work out of print. His major post-1949 work, Teahouse, just got him into trouble for lack of revolutionary rhetoric. What was left in China for him?
Lao She knew better than most that we are all part of our times, miniature epics lost in the modern world (remember that while many cite Dickens as his great inspiration, it was Conrad he most admired — no grand finales). He could have won a Nobel Prize, but he didn't. Instead he faced a Red Guard struggle session on a hot August day in 1966 — "Bloody August" as it became known. Beaten, humiliated, forced to wear a placard saying "Active Counterrevolutionary," his home smashed, his beloved flower beds trampled. That was his prize, courtesy of the Maoist state. And he chose to receive it by rising early the following morning, walking across Peking to Taiping Lake, and drowning himself. The futility of an individual struggle against an unfair society at an end. The Nobel imagined, the reality suicide. Lao She had written, early in his career, in his story Crescent Moon, "This world is no dream — it's a living hell."
And still Lao She is censored, remade in the image of the Party, the only image allowed in China, then and now. In 2010, CCTV, China's state broadcaster, screened a 39-episode adaptation of Teahouse with the requisite "official" ending of a joyous "liberation" in 1949 added; in recent theatrical adaptations of Lao She's final work Beneath the Red Banner, a semi-autobiographical novel of the dying days of the Manchu Dynasty, mention is never officially made of the fact that the book remains unfinished, as the author was instructed by the Red Guards that all art and literature had to describe life since 1949. Still control is denied him, futility forced upon him. At his former home in Beijing his writing desk has been preserved as it was on his final day. The calendar turned to August 24, 1966. Keen, seemingly enthusiastic young student volunteers offer to answer any questions foreign visitors may have about Lao She. So let's begin at the end and ask them what happened on that day? They turn away, embarrassed, giggle nervously, see the person asking the question as a problem, not even attempting a shilly-shally answer. Of course it's no great secret. They know the questioner knows, but they can't (won't) say it. The can of worms is too big, too wriggly.
It'd be the same if there were a Nobel on the desk. Prizes don't force out truth; they don't automatically form neat endings to a literary career. They're just ornaments. They don't make the Red Guards go away. They don't save you. If they did we'd give one to every persecuted writer in the world and then go home. If you want more, if you want hope and redemption, justice and fairness, then get the Chinese edition or the old Book-of-the-Month Club version of Rickshaw Boy. Just don't ask Lao She. He's too smart for that shit.
LARB Contributor
Born in London and educated there and in Glasgow, Paul French has lived and worked in Shanghai for many years. He is a widely published analyst and commentator on China and has written a number of books, including a history of foreign correspondents in China and a biography of the legendary Shanghai adman, journalist and adventurer Carl Crow. His book Midnight in Peking won the 2013 Edgar Award in the Best Fact Crime category, was a New York Times Bestseller and a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, and will be made into an international miniseries by Kudos Film and Television. Twitter: @chinarhyming
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subset: commoncrawl


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Weekly report – February 17, 2008
| weeklyIt's been a good week for experiments. I gave a presentation on Web 2.0 and the enterprise to a large financial institution, and I took responsibility for the second half of a Web 2.0 workshop at a publishing company. On a personal note, I tried outsourcing some of my online research to virtualworkdesk.com, ordering gifts (and a suit!) off eBay.ca, and entering data into Geni.
Here's what my week looked like:
- Monday: PHP coding, rehearsed and delivered presentation on Web 2.0
- Tuesday: Continued working on social media guide; back-to-back meetings
- Wednesday: Worked on PHP modules
- Thursday: Delivered workshop
- Friday: Continued working on social media guide; presented guide to internal consulting team
- Saturday: Marathon shopping trip for pasalubong, little gifts to give to friends and family
My goals for next week are to:
- prepare articles and presentations for the two next talks on my horizon, which have both hit "urgent" status at the same time
- finish the audio and video modules
- turn the social media guide over to internal consultants
- get an idea of the help I can expect from a virtual assistant
Oh, and it would be nice to sort out Ledger envelope budgeting again… =)
You can comment with Disqus or you can e-mail me at email@example.com.


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Hall of Heroes
Celebrating World Class Players
Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the introduction of our Hall of Heroes!
As we look forward to November's inaugural FFG World Championship Weekend, we're launching the Hall of Heroes as a way to celebrate those champions, past and present, who have etched their names into the histories of their games.
Players are not inducted to the Hall of Heroes lightly. Its chambers are reserved exclusively for the greatest of champions: World Champions, North American Champions, European Champions, and National Champions from around the world. Visitors are welcome, however, and will be able to learn more about these honored title holders. Who are they? How did they earn entry into the Hall of Heroes? What are the secrets of their success?
Each member of the Hall of Heroes will be honored with his or her own web page, including a short bio, a resume of major events and top finishes, and a look at his or her approach to the game.
A Living Monument
Like each of the games in our Organized Play program, the Hall of Heroes is a living entity and will grow over time.
We will expand until we have honored all those who have earned induction. In the meantime, we're choosing to open with a focus on the present, at those players who stand at the pinnacles of their games right now.
Today, as we launch the site, we are proud to induct its first member. A three-time World Champion for Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game and the game's 2012 North American Champion, this man has made his name synonymous with top-tier terror, combat, and investigation. Who is this man that has an almost unnatural understanding of the Ancient Ones' eldritch secrets? He is Tom Capor, and he is the first member of the Hall of Heroes.
Inducting a Legend – Tom Capor
"I enjoy good casual fun as much as the next gamer. However, if a game is exciting enough, I can't help looking for ways to not only defeat my opponents but to try to defeat the game itself." –Tom Capor
The only three-time World Champion of any of our Organized Play games, Tom Capor has made an indelible mark upon the tournament scene for Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game. Most recently, he earned new honors by winning the game's first ever North American Championship.
Tom described the winning strategy that took the North American Championships by storm: "Go big and go fast. Accelerate a domain to four resources as soon as possible, usually the second turn, and start dropping as many Ancient Ones and other big characters as possible. The goal was to win by sheer force by fielding a host of superiorly statted characters."
Hall of Heroes inductee Tom Capor
Tom has been playing Call of Cthulhu since 2005, before the game moved to its current Living Card Game™ format, and his achievements in the game speak for themselves:
- Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game World Champion – 2009, 2010, 2011
- Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game World Championship Finalist – 2008
- Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game World Championship Top 8 – 2005
- Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game North American Champion – 2012
- Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game Regional Champion – 2012
Congratulations to Tom Capor for stamping his name firmly into the annals of Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game. Due to his consistent excellence and due to the fact that he stands alone as our only three-time World Champion, we are proud to honor Tom Capor as the first inductee into our Hall of Heroes!
You can find more information about Tom Capor in the Hall of Heroes.
More to Come
Who else will be honored in the Hall of Heroes? Many champions have earned the reward throughout the years, and we will work to induct them into the Hall as we move forward.
Will you be among them? Test your skill against Tom Capor and more of the world's greatest players at the FFG World Championship Weekend this November 9th – 11th in Roseville, MN.
While you wait for your chance at the World Championship title of your favorite game, you can preview the Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game World Championship participation prizes or the A Game of Thrones: The Card Game World Championship participation prizes. We'll have more prizes on display soon, so keep checking back for more information!


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THE SUPREME Court's recent decision in the Arizona immigration case settled the debate over whether states may criminalize violations of federal immigration law (they may not) or require local police to check the immigration status of detainees they suspect of being in the country illegally (they may).
But the ruling in Arizona v. United States did nothing at all to fix America's dysfunctional immigration system or clarify what to do about illegal immigrants. Neither did President Obama's announcement a few days earlier that most young illegals who were brought to the United States as children will be allowed to remain in the country without fear of deportation. Nor, for that matter, did the aggressive deportation activity that preceded it, which saw the Obama administration expel nearly 1.2 million illegal immigrants in three years, more than any president since the 1950s.
For all the storm and stress of our national immigration debate, there has been remarkably little inclination to go beyond treating symptoms. Prescriptions range from the DREAM Act, which would make citizenship an option for hundreds of thousands of young illegals, to the hard-line approach of those who want to make it so difficult for undocumented immigrants to get work that they will "self-deport." But the basic architecture of US immigration policy itself — with its strangulating confusion of quotas and regulations, and its core assumption that immigration must be strictly limited and regulated — nearly always goes unchallenged.
It shouldn't. For the problem with America's immigration system isn't that too many people are breaking the rules. It's that the rules themselves are irrational, illiberal, and counterproductive.
Our national immigration policy seeks to control the number of migrants entering the United States, dictate which parts of the world they should come from, specify how closely they must be related to current American residents, and stipulate the kinds of jobs they are eligible to work. Exactly 226,000 green cards, for example, are available each year for what federal regulations classify as "family preference" immigrants. Within that category, there are precise sub-quotas, such as the 23,400 green cards reserved for married sons and daughters of US citizens, or the 65,000 green cards for the siblings of citizens. Employment-based green cards are even harder to come by. Only 140,000 are authorized per year; they too are divided into sub-quotas. In addition, no more than 7 percent of the total can be issued to immigrants from any single country.
Byzantine in its intricacy, unrelated to real-world pressures of supply and demand, America's immigration policy inevitably results in huge backlogs. Some would-be immigrants must wait in line for decades to get a green card. For many others, there is no line to wait in. The result, not surprisingly, is a powerful incentive to enter illegally.
Quotas and preferences have been basic features of our immigration policy for most of the past century. By now a majority of Americans may find it hard to imagine that a radically different approach might make more sense.
Yet for most of US history, the government's approach was radically different. Immigration was largely unrestricted. Most peaceful foreigners were free to move to the United States. Certain categories of individuals might be excluded by law, but only because they were deemed genuinely undesirable — for instance, those suffering from a "loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease." Apart from the disgraceful and racist Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, it wasn't until the 1920s that Congress began imposing broad arbitrary limits on the number of people who could come to America, or the countries they could come from. Driven by a nativist backlash to what had been the greatest wave of immigration in American history, Congress for the first time created the quotas that are now so entrenched in US immigration policy.
Economically, such quotas are indefensible. Lowering immigration barriers is one of the most pro-growth measures any country can adopt. But our current quota-based system is politically harmful as well. Thanks to its capricious restrictions, immigrants are deemed "illegal" not because they are objectively unsuited to be Americans, but because they don't fit within a random numerical cap. What's worse, those very restrictions create the distortions that induce so many industrious immigrants to cross the border unlawfully. That in turn generates the anger and suspicion that have made our immigration debates so rancorous.
We have other options. We could scale back existing family and country preferences and scale up a lottery for immigrant visas. We could, as Nobel economist Gary Becker and others have suggested, sell green cards at set rates with no ceiling on the number of slots available. Though it seems politically impossible now, we could even return to open borders with common-sense exclusions.
The point is that immigration policy needs a rethink more fundamental than the usual four corners of the debate. Nowhere is it carved in granite that immigration must be governed through quotas. America's immigration policy wasn't this dysfunctional in the past. The quota system is an old mistake, but it doesn't have to be our future.
Jeff Jacoby can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeff_jacoby.


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This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) - One of the participants in the MLS championship game went through a long-term rebuilding project under new ownership, complete with a rebranding of the organization, construction of a $200 million stadium and the revitalization of soccer in the surrounding community.
The other participant went through a rebuilding project that took about a month.
Sporting Kansas City, which languished as the Wizards for years, will be playing for its second MLS Cup at glitzy Sporting Park on Saturday when it faces Real Salt Lake, a club that jettisoned a bunch of proven veterans in the offseason in a push to go younger.
It's the first time that Kansas City, once a soccer wasteland and now a hotbed for the sport, has hosted the league's title game. When the Wizards won their only championship in 2000, the finale was played at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.
"We've made such a turnaround in all aspects of the club," said Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes, who played on that 2000 team. "So much of it has to do with the ownership group and the vision and commitment, and not just their commitment from the financial aspect but also from their participation within the community. That's been a major impact on our team."
Tickets for the MLS Cup were snapped up in a matter of minutes, which is hardly surprising. The club sold out every game this season, turning Sporting Park into a must-visit destination.
It helps that the club has only experienced success since 2006, when it was purchased by a six-man ownership group headed by Cerner Corp. co-founders Neal Patterson and Cliff Illig.
After a few moribund seasons playing in cavernous Arrowhead Stadium, and then a minor league baseball park, the club finally caught fire with its 2011 rebranding. New logo, new colors, brand new name, one that fit the mold of European soccer clubs. Sporting KC finished first in the Eastern Conference in 2011 and 2012, and last year won the U.S. Open Cup for the second time.
The one thing it hasn't done is win the MLS Cup.
Frustrated the past couple years by Houston, Sporting KC finally broke through against its nemesis this season. A dramatic victory in the second leg of the semifinal at raucous Sporting Park sent the club on to Saturday's championship game.
"This is huge for the city," said forward Dom Dwyer, who scored the deciding goal against the Dynamo. "I've only been here two years, but I've seen this grow. There's more and more hype, and there's more and more attention. You start to get noticed when you're out and around the city, and a lot of people are talking about it.
"It's not just Chiefs or Royals," Dwyer said of the two other professional sports franchises that call Kansas City home. "It's Sporting, too, so that's really cool."
Real Salt Lake has been a big deal in Utah for a while.
The club, which played its inaugural season in 2005, has qualified for the playoffs six straight years, the best active streak in the league. Four of those seasons, Real Salt Lake advanced to the conference finals, and in 2009 it beat the Los Angeles Galaxy to win the MLS Cup.
But a tight salary cap means clubs tend to walk a financial tightrope. Last December, Real Salt Lake parted with eight regulars _ among them, Will Johnson was sent to Portland, and Jamison Olave and Fabian Espindola to New York _ and replaced them with less expensive alternatives.
Even with the roster rebuild, the club kept winning.
"Obviously not something we hope to do every day, trading away three All-Stars at the end of the season," Real Salt Lake general manager Garth Lagerwey said. "It's a credit to the veteran guys who remain. When they see Will Johnson leave, they could throw up their hands and say, `Hey, what are these crazy guys doing?' And they didn't. They stuck with us."
Real Salt Lake made the finals of this year's U.S. Open Cup, losing a nail-biter to D.C. United. It then finished second in the Western Conference to Portland, only to beat the Timbers 5-2 in their two-leg, aggregate-goal conference final.
"We've kind of had to shuffle things around a lot this year," Real Salt Lake midfielder Ned Grabavoy said, "and maybe it was for the best to have that happen at the beginning of the year."
The two clubs have only met once this season with Sporting KC winning 2-1 at Real Salt Lake in July. But much has changed since then, not the least of which is the weather. The forecast for Saturday includes a high temperature in the low-20s.
"It's two quality teams, a good matchup, and this is what we've been working for since January, since before January," Dwyer said. "Looking forward to finishing it off the right way."
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--McKesson Corporation (NYSE:MCK) will host its Investor Day at 9:00 a.m. ET on June 16, 2011, including presentations by John Hammergren, Chairman and CEO; Jeff Campbell, EVP and CFO; Paul Julian, EVP, Group President, and Pat Blake, EVP, Group President.
An audio webcast with accompanying slides will be available live and archived on the company's Investor Relations website at www.mckesson.com/investors. A complete listing of upcoming events for the investment community is available on the company's Investor Relations website.
McKesson Corporation, currently ranked 15th on the FORTUNE 500, is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to making the business of healthcare run better. We partner with payers, hospitals, physician offices, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies and others across the spectrum of care to build healthier organizations that deliver better care to patients in every setting. McKesson helps its customers improve their financial, operational, and clinical performance with solutions that include pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management, healthcare information technology, and business and clinical services. For more information, visit http://www.mckesson.com.
McKesson CorporationAna Schrank, 415-983-7153 (Investors and Financial Media)email@example.com


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From the Hans Christian Andersen biography "The Life of Hans Christian Andersen. Day By Day", written by DPhil Johan de Mylius:
19 May
Release of I Sverrig. Concurrent release in Germany and England. HCA receives a fee of 200 rdl. for the German edition. The Danish edition consists of 2,000 copies, of which 500 are sold in a month. HCA is not at all satisfied with this amount of sales.
This poetic travel book contains central programmatic chapters such as "En Prædiken i Naturen" (A Sermon in a Nature Setting) and "Poesiens Californien" (Poetic California), in which HCA expresses his faith in the alliance between poetry and science.
24 May
After numerous invitations, HCA finally goes to the small farmhouse Christinelund to visit Jonna and Henrik Stampe. Dines at Nysø Estate the day after, in spite of having stayed away from here since Thorvaldsen's death, due to disagreements with the baroness.
"I was obliged then to be with the old baroness, but she was quite mild, like a newly-struck silver coin"
(letter to Edvard Collin, 9th June).
Outing to Store Hestehave.
2 June
Takes the steam-ship 'Zephyr' from Kallehave to Svendborg. Aboard, he meets Ole Bang and his family. Ole Bang bears the title "konferensråd" (a high Danish title, now obsolete). The Bang family are headed for Als to visit the son (who is the father of Herman Bang, a famed Danish novelist). Shortly after this meeting aboard the ship, Ole Bang sends HCA his latest poetry, Eva Homo, printed as a manuscript.
HCA arrives at Glorup Estate on the same day. Here he receives the German edition of I Sverrig (In Sweden). Is surprised (diary, 9th) to read in the satiric periodical 'Corsaren' from Friday 6th that it is high time the critics in Denmark discover "the sun-basked elements" of HCA's works,
"and not remain in the shadows and shoot arrows from there, sharpened with malice. Actually it is a shame that we let foreigners be more clear-sighted in this regard than we ourselves are".
HCA is in charge of the decoration of the tent for the party to be held 7th July in honour of the returning soldiers from the estate. During the preparations, the writer M.A. Goldschmidt turns up, which annoys HCA ("There was a kind of arrogance, of haughtiness over the little man, as always, almost impudence", the diary, 6th). For the celebrations, HCA organises a tent on the avenue as well as one on the small island out on the artificial lake. In a letter to Henriette Wulff dated 15th July he comments on this:
"I was the Bournonville of the party, in charge of the entire affair, thereby winning the admiration of everyone, from the cattleman and the milk-maids right up to the highest ranking..., and it was quite splendid [...] It was quite delightful to see the magical effect all this had on the farm folk: 'To think that we should live to see the likes of this!' said one, 'I never would have thought there was such luxury in the world' - 'The man who organised this must have a mighty fine head on his shoulders! - yes, I'd say the duke would be providing him with a nice tip for all this!' - 'This is the heaven of heaven!' said the old Gardener, as he entered the room. What more can I ask for? None of my books have won such admiration".
June-July and once again in September
Reads Steen Bille's book: Beretning om Korvetten "Galatheas" Reise omkring Jorden (The Story of The Corvette "Galatheas'" Journey Around the World) (released in 1849-51). HCA knew Bille personally, as he had met him on Föhr (in September 1844). In appreciation of the book, HCA does a paper-cutting for Steen Bille which depicts the corvette Galathea, anchored in the harbour of Constantinople - which HCA of course had seen for himself on the journey of 1841.


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Title :
In A Mirror, Darkly
Series :
Rating :
Overall Ep :
First Aired :
22 Apr 2005
Stardate :
13 Jan 2155
Director :
James L. Conway
Year :
Writers :
Michael Sussman
Season Ep :
x 18
Main Cast :
Scott Bakula
Jonathan Archer
John Billingsley
Jolene Blalock
Dominic Keating
Malcolm Reed
Anthony Montgomery
Travis Mayweather
Linda Park
Hoshi Sato
Connor Trinneer
Charles Tucker III
Guest Cast :
Vaughn Armstrong
Mirror Forrest
Scott Bakula
Mirror Archer
John Billingsley
Mirror Phlox
Jolene Blalock
Mirror T'Pol
James Cromwell
Mirror Cochrane
Dominic Keating
Mirror Reed
Anthony Montgomery
Mirror Mayweather
Linda Park
Mirror Hoshi
Franc Ross
as Grizzled Human
Connor Trinneer
Mirror Tucker
Trip says that the cloak has to have everything except auxiliary power sent to it to cloak the ship. But they keep running at warp speed after engaging it. Can you really run the warp drive on auxiliary power? Later he says he can't decloak and free up power for weapons and armour because the cloak is not responding. So what? Surely you can just unplug the thing whether it's responding or not?
So there's an Orion woman on the bridge of the Mirror NX-01. Since Bound has established that Orion women constantly emit pheromones that make men crazy for them whilst women become listless and lazy, why isn't this woman running the ship? (In fairness, the Empire probably has some way to neutralise the pheromones. I bet it's an really evil way, too.)
Great Moment :
Lots of good ones to choose from. The title sequence merits special mention - the war imagery is good fun and the music is
much better than the normal Enterprise intro!
Seeing a Tholian is also great - there has been massive fan speculation about just what the Tholians look like after the glimpse we get in The Tholian Web, and it's nice to finally get a good look.
Body Count :
In order... one Vulcan killed by Cochrane - presumably several others killed inside the ship. A Tellarite is tortured by Reed and Phlox to test out their agony booth. Forrest's bodyguard is shot in Archer's takeover, as is a guy on the bridge. Trip gets a turn in the booth, four hours worth. T'Pol and her friends blow up two guys with a grenade in the brig, and possibly shoot at least another one outside. Archer's bodyguard is shot when Forrest retakes command, as are at least two bridge officers - possibly three if T'Pol hit whoever she fired at off-screen. Archer gets TEN hours in the agony booth, and Forrest indicates that Reed will get the same. A Tholian is tortured and ultimately killed. And finally, almost the whole crew of the NX-01 is killed by the Tholians. Quite a list!
Factoid :
This episode is a sequel of sorts to The Tholian Web, in which the USS Defiant disappeared into interphase space never to be heard of again. Now we know where it ended up.
Tholians can generate comm signals with their body.
T'Pol states that the Defiant Captain's neck is broken, exactly as stated in "The Tholian Web". Even the position of the Captain and the other body on the bridge is exactly as seen in the TOS episode.
The two present day aircraft seen in the teaser are a B-1 strategic bomber and an F-15 fighter, both US aircraft.
Excluding the movies and animated series, this is the 700th episode of Star Trek to be broadcast.
In the Mirror Universe, Zefram Cochrane shot the Vulcan who greeted him from the ship and the Humans then raided it and stole everything they could. So the Mirror universe branches off from our own at least this early, if not earlier.
This is only the second time we've ever seen a Tholian Web weapon employed.
This episode is a winner of the DITL "
Best of Trek
" award.
In the Mirror universe, the Admiral Forrest of the NX-01 is busy fighting one of the Empire's wars - one that the Humans are losing. Archer has heard rumours of an advanced Earth ship which has emerged through an interphasic rift in Tholians space, and he is determined to cross into Tholian space and claim the ship for the Empire. When Forrest demurs, Archer stages a mutiny and heads there anyway. With T'Pol's help Forrest regains command - but Archer has set the ship on autopilot and locked out all interference. Arriving at the destination they find none other than the USS Defiant, and a boarding party begins to search for intelligence information aboard. Unfortunately the NX-01 is discovered by the Tholians...
In my humble opinion, this is the single best episode that Enterprise has aired so far. I liked everything about it. I several times complained about Deep Space Nine's use of the Mirror universe; the DS9 writers didn't seem to get the point of the MU, or chose to ignore it. The MU is supposed to be a moral inversion of the Federation, with Humans who are amoral at least, and often actively evil. DS9 never really showed that side of Humans, but this episode captures it perfectly. The teaser is a brilliant example; Cochrane firing on the Vulcans and claiming their ship is a perfect way to illustrate the differences between our universe and the Mirror one. I wonder what the present day is like in the Mirror universe?
Bringing the Defiant in is a clever and sensible thing to do. We've seen many times in Enterprise that Humans are not the big guys on the block; even with Vulcan technology it's hard to believe that the Humans of 2155 could be out conquering the Klingons, Romulans, Tholians, etc. By giving the Terran Empire TOS technology in the form of a real live working Constitution class starship, Humanity is gaining a massive leg-up that serves to explain perfectly how they ended up so powerful.
It's always great fun to see our characters ham things up for the MU episodes - one of the few things DS9 did right in this regard was Intendant Kira, who was superb as the MU version of our own Kira. Here all the characters are just perfect. You could go on for hours, but to touch on just a few of the nice moments - the idea of Forrest claiming command of the NX-01 for himself, which is exactly what you would expect inthe MU. Archer is good as the Mirror universe equivalent of himself, though he is surprisingly similar to our own Archer in character. Why not just throw Forrest out of an airlock as Reed suggested? It was a nice touch to have Porthos still there but as a much larger, much nastier rottweiler. And I love that he has a collection of guns on the wall where the pictures of previous Enterprises are in our universe. Hoshi is great as the "Captain's Woman", still somewhat loyal to Forrest but also perfectly willing to go along with the top dog. In that respect she's very similar to Persis from the Augments arc. Trip is excellent as the Chief Engineer, with his facial disfigurement from Delta ray exposure being a nice reference to "The Menagerie". T'Pol is interesting in how she parallels Mirror Spock - she's loyal to her Captain, a valued crewmember but apparently a second class citizen in the Empire, and more than willing to use her Vulcan abilities to further her cause when necessary. Reed gets less time than most, but he's good fun as the ship's enforcer. Phlox doesn't get a whole lot of screen time but he surely makes the most of it, whether displaying his evident pride at inventing the agony booth or urging the Tholian to hurry up and die. It's also a nice touch that his sickbay animals are still there, but now they're experimental test subjects.
Of course there was all the usual little changes to look for. Different ship's patches for the Starfleet and MACO crew, Terran Empire sword-and-planet logos everywhere, skimpier uniforms for the women - the MU Humans apparently stayed sexist a long time after our own did!
One of the great things about the episode was getting to see a Tholian in the "skin". We saw a Tholian in The Tholian Web, but it was a simple drawing of a crystalline shape. The non-canon Trek novels suggested that the Tholians were indeed crystalline life forms, even suggesting that their bodies could be carved into different shapes so as to fulfil a specific function. Even so, there was some fan speculation that what we saw in TOS was actually just a helmet, with Tholians themselves looking utterly different. This episode gave us a "head" shape pretty much identical to what we saw in TOS, but puts arms and legs onto it. A nice way to build on the appearance of the original without contradicting what we saw in TOS in any way.
The re-use of the Tholian Web was also pleasing, especially as it was done in a far superior way. The original conception of the web was rather absurd; it took literally hours to deploy, and given that the Enterprise could disable a Tholian ship in a matter of seconds then you could comfortably pick off whole fleets while they tried to encompass you in the web. This version is deployed in seconds, trapping the NX-01 effectively. It may seem odd that an earlier version of the weapon was more advanced, but then the Tholians did have far more than two ships working together this time, so perhaps that makes the difference?
The ending surprised me a little. I didn't expect to see the NX-01 get blown away by the Tholians, certainly not with virtually the whole crew. I actually wondered if Archer would destroy the NX-01 with the Defiant, or if Forrest would voluntarily abandon it in favour of the Defiant.
My only gripe for the whole episode was that we got to see so little of the Defiant in action. I found myself a little impatient for them to get there; perhaps I would have skipped the sequence where the Tholian was captured and have them go straight to the ship. Show the NX-01 destroyed and then have Archer come out in the Defiant to give the Tholians a pasting, ending the episode with the Defiant heading out into space. But that's just me. Whatever, no doubt the Defiant will be strutting her stuff satisfactorily in the next episode.
© Graham & Ian Kennedy
Page views : 45,058
Last updated : 8 Jul 2016


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I received an interesting email today, part question, but mostly rant. It's hard to read as-is, given that it was submitted as a single sentence-paragraph, so I've broken it up for discussion purposes.
The email subject is "you worshipping Amazon." There are some good points, some interesting ones, and many that I disagree with.
just wondering why you are so in love with amazon, the retailer that is solely responsible for putting hundreds of small business stores in bankruptcy
Because they have good pricing (most of the time), great customer service (most of the time), great product selection (most of the time), and they get to me what I need when I need it.
not to mention the CEO of amazon being a globalist, with the merging of all the tool companies and platforms like the internet being censored
So what if Amazon's CEO is a globalist? Many if not most large businesses aim to reach a global audience.
Censorship? Moving on.
why are you not being a proponent for the little guy like yourself
I am. Most tool brands are not "little guys," even most of the small or independent ones. Liking Amazon and liking small businesses are not mutually exclusive.
I see big tool companies like klein making there tools cheaper, example I bought 2 magnetic nutdrivers off amazon once received I saw the quality change, I weighed new tools and weighed 5 year old tools, there was a 5 to 7 gram difference
Is that due to pressure from Amazon, or Home Depot, Klein's exclusive big box retail partner?
Klein's recent tool and product releases suggest that they're trying to grow their market, pushing beyond electrical tools.
because they have to compete with the amazons and have had to change their business model
so now I must buy german like knipex or maybe snap-on locally
There are other USA brands that produce high quality tools, not just Snap-on.
soon you will have nothing to report on
I run a small contracting company and I forbid purchasing from amazon for tools or anything for that matter
That's your right.
the vendors on amazon don't even care what they are selling now, its like an online flea market now, and it is harder to vet the products by the pictures or descriptions
Brand name tools where you have a model number and know exactly what you want to buy? No. But there are many products and listings that are you describe them.
and if only they would give the country of origin for tools
Country of origin changes, and nobody likes buying a tool made one place when they thought it was made somewhere else.
That said, pressing for retailers to disclose COO, or asking why they don't is a waste of time. I speak from experience.
I buy quality only and we have found out made in America does not mean quality usually it means same as china just cost more
There are some great tools coming out of factories in China, Taiwan, and elsewhere.
Just because something is made in the USA doesn't automatically mean it's good. But that said, there are many USA brands that produce exceptionally good tools.
we buy from Germany, finland, UK, Italy, where quality still matters
Quality still matters here, depending on the company.
so maybe you should cater to everyone seeing that the US market is questionable
What does that mean? I am a big fan of European hand tools.
I can see by the reviews that your viewers are looking mostly for price not quality, and by quality I mean a real quality tool is almost 3 times as much as the US price but will never break and the companies have been around for 100 years
That's simply not accurate.
And on the point of price, not everyone can or desires to spend 3X as much (at least) on every tool they buy.
the brands today in the US are a joke
I disagree.
I frequent a few tool places in my town and the reps there tell me they are getting more and more request for german tools and have become a distributor for Knipex which is nice
Yes, because word of mouth helps to spread familiarity with European hand tool brands.
I wouldn't buy European hand tools locally – the ones I've seen are always marked up way too high.
they make channelock pliers look like total garbage which they are
Channellock pliers are decent, especially for the price. Again, a lot of users need a tool to get work done, they don't need the "best" tool at 2X-3X the price or more.
I am removing your site from my bookmark and will check back in a year
Sorry, you won't find much of a difference.


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In developing countries where iron deficiency is prevalent, prenatal iron-folic acid supplementation increased offspring intellectual and motor functioning during school age, according to researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. They examined the intellectual and motor functioning of children whose mothers received micronutrient supplementation during pregnancy and found that aspects of intellectual functioning including working memory, inhibitory control, and fine motor functioning were positively associated with prenatal iron and folic acid supplementation.
The results are published in the December 22/29 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"Iron is essential for the development of the central nervous system," said Parul Christian, DrPH, MSc, lead author of the study and an associate professor with the Bloomberg School's Department of International Health. "Early iron deficiency can alter neuroanatomy, biochemistry, and metabolism, leading to changes in neurophysiologic processes that support cognitive and sensorimotor development."
Researchers conducted a cohort study in rural Nepal, following 676 children aged 7 to 9 years from June 2007 to April 2009 who were born to women in a community-based, double-blind, randomized controlled trial of prenatal micronutrient supplementation between 1999 and 2001. Child participants were randomly assigned to receive daily iron, folic acid and zinc, or multiple micronutrients containing these plus 11 other micronutrients. All received vitamin A, as did a control group of vitamin A alone from early pregnancy through 3 months postpartum. Researchers assessed intellectual functioning using the universal nonverbal intelligence test (UNIT) and motor function was assessed using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC). The study found evidence that maternal prenatal supplementation with iron and folic acid was positively associated with general intellectual ability, some aspects of executive function, and fine motor control compared to offspring of mothers in the control group.
"This innovative study shows that in very low-income settings, children's cognitive performance is influenced by their mother's iron+folic acid status during pregnancy, along with school attendance, illustrating the importance of both nutritional and environmental interventions," said Maureen Black, PhD, professor of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and an adjunct professor with the Bloomberg School's Department of International Health.
"Few studies have examined whether micronutrient supplementation during gestation, a critical period of central nervous system development, affects children's later functioning," adds Christian. "Considering the significant role of iron and folic acid in the development of both intellectual and motor skills, antenatal use per international guidelines should be expanded in many low and middle-income settings where program coverage continues to be poor."
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
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Retired reviewer Robert Rhodes recently had a chat with Alex Bledsoe, author of the EDDIE LACROSSE MYSTERIES and the MEMPHIS VAMPIRES novels. His third EDDIE LACROSSE novel, Dark Jenny, will be available in print (Tor) and audio (Blackstone Audio) next week. Tor has generously offered a couple of copies of Dark Jenny for FanLit readers who live in the United States. If you'd like one, just leave a comment below and we'll randomly choose two winners. Be sure to check back next Tuesday to see if you're a winner.
Robert Rhodes: I've had the pleasure of reading (and reviewing) the first two EDDIE LACROSSE novels, The Sword-Edged Blonde and Burn Me Deadly. Dark Jenny is high on my reading list. What's familiar in the newest tale? What's different?
Alex Bledsoe: The tone is familiar from the other books, but both the structure and the setting are different. In this case, Eddie tells the story to a group of people snowbound at Angelina's Tavern, so it's a flashback to events that happened prior to The Sword-Edged Blonde. The story proper finds Eddie in an isolated island kingdom, where he knows no one, and under suspicion of murder.
Which sounds highly promising. Eddie is a memorable character and narrator. A quick way to describe him might be as a blend of Conan (the Cimmerian primarily, with a dash of O'Brien) and Sam Spade, but that might be an oversimplification. How did you 'meet' Eddie? What were your first impressions of him, and were they accurate?
I first thought of Eddie in high school. He was inspired by the laid-back, scruffy Captain Dallas in the original Alien movie. He's changed over the years (and hopefully gotten deeper), but the mellow world-weary attitude and the deliberately disreputable appearance have remained.
Why a medieval-fantasy setting for Eddie's adventures – versus a historical-medieval setting, for example, or a Jazz Age-fantasy setting?
I think there's something primal about the lone hero, sword in hand, facing the bad guys. There's that direct contact you don't get with guns or more modern weapons, plus the sense that the individual combat might truly change things for a lot of people. As for fantasy, it allows the presence of magic and otherworldly beings that you couldn't have in a strictly historical setting. And it makes a nice contrast with the character's world-weary, pulp detective voice.
One of the distinctive and refreshing features of the first two books was your evocation of the setting. Even though swords and horses abound, you manage to evoke, through dialogue and descriptive details, something other than a generic, medieval-European atmosphere. Are there particular places that have informed or inspired your world-building? Places in your native Tennessee, perhaps?
I want the background to be just that: background. I've read a lot of fantasy where the worlds were so incredibly detailed that (a) you couldn't keep up without a map, index, and glossary and (b) the writer often shortchanged the characters and story. I try to find analogs for the contemporary world, so that even if it's a little odd, the reader will know immediately what it's supposed to be without footnotes. For example, I often give "make" and "model" names to Eddie's swords; it's clearly an echo of the way a modern detective might talk about guns, but it also tells you a bit about how the society as a whole views their weapons.
Speaking of weapons … in the first two books, Eddie gives and takes his share of wounds and flat-out beatings, and I have to say that the combat scenes seem quite realistic. How do you, or do you, 'choreograph' the combat scenes? Do you act any out, with or without your kids? Do you have any personal experience with weapons or martial arts?
I've taken some fencing classes, and anytime you have sons, lightsaber battles often occur. I've also had a couple of edged-weapon injuries that stuck with me – no pun intended. But the main thing is to just think through cause and effect, remembering the character and what's been established about him, and to keep it realistic. Eddie doesn't fight on a whim, and when he does fight, he's out to win as quickly and efficiently as possible. That means his fights tend to be very short, because if he's not sure he can win quickly, he won't fight.
What kind of (gentler) research have you done for Eddie's stories?
Often it's not the kind of research you'd expect. Historical detail isn't really a priority, since I'm creating my own world, but I'm also deliberately working with archetypes and variations of folklore. That means that, for example, in Burn Me Deadly I had to not only create believable dragons, but I had to decide what they meant to the societies that encountered them and kept their memories alive. I read many books on dragons, and learned a lot about what they represented to the people who believed in them.
For Dark Jenny, I read a lot about the meaning of Arthurian stories, how they developed, and what the various societies got from them. The book that let me see the story as I wanted to tell it was The Betrayal of Arthur by Australian author Sara Douglass. It was her nonfiction take on what the legends mean, and while I don't share her conclusions, her book showed me how I should be thinking about them.
Which leads to three reading questions: Which works do you consider your core, primary influences in terms of fantasy writing? What's a recently published fantasy novel you've enjoyed? What are a couple of your favorite non-fantasy books?
1. Memory and Dream by Charles de Lint; Stoker's Dracula; and White's The Once and Future King. Also, given my generation, you can't discount the influence of the original Star Wars.
2. The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia.
3. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Ceremony by Robert B. Parker.
Tell us a little about your writing process. Do you prefer a particular desk or coffee shop? A particular time of day? Any special books or knick-knacks you like to keep nearby?
I get up early before everyone else so I can have the house to myself for a while. Because I'm a stay-at-home parent of two small boys, I have to be able to work pretty much anywhere. Often I'll write in the body of an e-mail so I can easily retrieve it from the nearest computer. When I'm revising, I print out the pages and go to a local coffee shop, where the white noise of conversation helps me concentrate and the lack of distractions (TV, internet, etc.) keeps me on task.
Returning to Eddie … who would be a good candidate to play him in a movie? And does Stefan Rudnicki, the voice of the audiobooks for the series, sound like him?
As I said, he was originally inspired by the 1979-era Tom Skerrit, so that's who I still see in my mind's eye. Fans have mentioned Sean Bean, Gerard Butler, and Clive Owen, but among actors in the right age range, I'm partial to Paul Gross, the Canadian actor who starred in the awesome series "Slings and Arrows."
And Stefan is great. He gets the weariness and the slight amusement perfectly right. I can't tell you how pleased I am each time a new book comes out and Stefan returns to narrate it.
And finally, assuming Eddie survives in Dark Jenny, can you share anything about his possible further adventures? About how much of his past has been fully explored?
I'm currently writing Eddie IV, which I can summarize in one word (pirates!) and which will give a lot of background, not of Eddie, but of one of the other recurring characters. It also introduces a new professional partner for Eddie, a woman who's his equal and perhaps even tougher. I'm trying not to repeat settings, story elements and themes, so hopefully it'll be a whole new ride for my long-time readers.
And a wild, fun ride it's been so far. Many thanks, Alex, for your time, and on behalf of the FanLit community, congratulations on Eddie's success and the release of Dark Jenny. Cheers!
Readers, leave a comment below if you'd like a copy of Dark Jenny. We'll choose two United States readers. Check back next week to see if you've won.


text:
It sounded like the perfect way to break up the week.
This is "Weekend Kitchen" owned by Nancy Smith. That's not exactly her whole last name .....it has a hyphen in there somewhere with another name but no matter! her shop is lovely and that's all you really care about right?
Just some lovely doorways.....
This is "The French Hen" owned by Laurie.....very cute shop full of pretty girl things and of course french inspired.
Can someone tell me how to eliminate the reflection of the buildings on the opposite side of the street in the window???
I took the 2nd pic on our walk back to the car. The price for the chandelier was $1100. It seemed reasonable by Essex standards.
..........Now I just have to convince my husband!!!
Oh by the way the concert was a blast.....lots of people showed up with their families and friends. We drank wine and eat brownies and watched Paula and Bill dance. I'd shown them dancing before so I thought I'd better not push it and save it for another time but I will show you the children that were running around and dancing to the music.
............Don't we wish we all had that much energy!!!!! lol
Hope you all have a fanastic weekend!!!
keep smiling!


text:
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In the past week, I've been called a bigot, a hater, had people wish I died, and had people wish Christians had died, been rounded up and killed, or experienced their own personal holocaust.All this came from proponents of gay marriage. The media won't cover most of this. The media sees most stories as victims versus victimizers and those who support gay marriage are the victims. They get the positive media coverage.In reality, though, throughout this week I've seen a number of Christians engaged in as much hate filled rhetoric as gay marriage proponents, including the pastor in North Carolina who encouraged parents to beat up their gay acting sons.As a Christian, I cannot support gay marriage, nor can I accept practicing homosexuality as anything but a sin. At the same time, there are a lot of Christians out there who seem convinced they aren't sinners. In fact, we are all sinners and as I have matured in my faith, I have a harder and harder time understanding how so many Christians can be so tolerant of so much sin, but treat homosexuality as some sin set apart from all other sins making it a worse sin than, for example, adultery.This is a political blog and I try to leave my theological ramblings for special occasions, but I think this needs to be said.Christianity is a religion premised on God's love. We are to hate sin, but we are to love sinners. For non-Christians, that may make them rage about Christian hypocrisy, but it should not. I have gay friends. They all know where I stand on this issue. But they also know that I know that I too am a sinner. For me to love myself and hate them would just be sin on top of sin. We all, like sheep, have gone astray and I am no better than they are nor they better than me.Hearing a pastor encourage parents to commit violence on their sons because they may be gay is offensive to me. Hearing Christians refer to gays with slurs is offensive. At the same time, hearing gay rights proponents wish Christians would die is equally offensive. Hearing gay rights proponents derisively call a Christian a bigot for standing on principle is offensive.What many people tend to forget is that Christianity is not a religion premised on some of us getting to heaven and others not. Christianity is actually a religion premised on not one single person getting to Heaven. All of us are on the express train to hell. All of us.I no more belong in Heaven than the Pope or Billy Graham and they no more belong in Heaven than me. None of us belong there.We get there by God's own grace given through our saving faith in Christ. Believing in Christ gets us a "get out of jail free" card, but that card does not mean we don't belong in jail.Those of us who are going to Heaven view ourselves as passing through this place. But we have an obligation to fight for what we believe in and to stand up for our values. We know not just that society, over several thousand years, worked out that marriage between a man and woman is the best organization for society and we should not change that just because some people think it would make them happy or be fair.We also, as Christians, know that marriage is an institution set up by God where man and woman become one being designed to glorify God. That's why we can't support changing marriage's definition.But as I defend marriage as it exists, and recognize that many opponents on this issue will see anything Christians say and do as examples of bigotry and hate, we Christians should reflect our values with love of our fellow sinners, not condoning violence.Liberals view the Golden Rule as they do the Commerce Clause — a theological blank slip to justify any action they want as the commerce clause is a constitutional blank slip to do whatever they want legally.Evangelical Christians should remember the Golden Rule and treat others with the love and respect we wish to be shown. But we should also know the limits of application for the Golden Rule and remember that sometimes loving others means saying no.The balance in an increasingly secular world is difficult for Christians to maintain. As the world comes down on our values, it is easy to react back with hostility. But as I noted on twitter the other day, for all the people calling me a bigot and saying I am out of step with the advance of history, my response is that I am not concerned about being on the right side of history. I am concerned about whose side I am on, on the last day of history.There will be a last day. And though I may lose in this lifetime, on the last day Christ wins and I through him.There are real rights and real wrongs and we should not be so eager to accommodate this world as to be silent on right and wrong. But we should not be so eager to show our separation from this world by pouring out contempt for others who, like ourselves, have fallen short of the glory of God.The balance is not easy, but let's try not to go wobbly.
Where Is The Balance?


text:
Ezekiel Chapters (English Bible : Young's Literal Translation)
1 And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying,
2 `Son of man, set thy face unto Jerusalem, and prophesy unto the holy places, and prophesy unto the ground of Israel;
3 and thou hast said unto the ground of Israel: Thus said Jehovah: Lo, I [am] against thee, And have brought out My sword from its scabbard, And have cut off from thee righteous and wicked.
4 Because that I have cut off from thee righteous and wicked, Therefore go out doth My sword from its scabbard, Unto all flesh, from south to north.
5 And known have all flesh that I, Jehovah, Have brought out My sword from its scabbard, It doth not turn back any more.
6 And thou, son of man, sigh with breaking of loins, yea, with bitterness thou dost sigh before their eyes,
7 and it hath come to pass, when they say unto thee, For what art thou sighing? that thou hast said: Because of the report, for it is coming, And melted hath every heart, And feeble hath been all hands, And weak is every spirit, And all knees go — waters, Lo, it is coming, yea, it hath been, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.`
8 And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying,
9 `Son of man, prophesy, and thou hast said, Thus said Jehovah, say: A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also polished.
10 So as to slaughter a slaughter it is sharpened. So as to have brightness it is polished, Desire hath rejoiced the sceptre of my son, It is despising every tree.
11 And he giveth it for polishing, For laying hold of by the hand. It is sharpened — the sword — and polished, To give it into the hand of a slayer.
12 Cry and howl, son of man, For it hath been among My people, It [is] among all the princes of Israel, Cast unto the sword have been My people. Therefore strike on thy thigh,
13 Because [it is] a trier, And what if even the sceptre it is despising? It shall not be, an affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.
14 And thou, son of man, prophesy, And smite hand on hand, And bent is the sword a third time, The sword of the wounded! It [is] the sword of the wounded — the great one, That is entering the inner chamber to them.
15 To melt the heart, and to multiply the ruins, By all their gates I have set the point of a sword. Ah, it is made for brightness, Wrapt up for slaughter.
16 Take possession of the right, place thyself at the left, Whither thy face is appointed.
17 And I also, I smite My hand on my hand, And have caused My fury to rest; I, Jehovah, have spoken.`
18 And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying,
19 `And thou, son of man, appoint for thee two ways, for the coming in of the sword of the king of Babylon; from one land they come forth, both of them, and a station prepare thou, at the top of the way of the city prepare [it].
20 A way appoint for the coming of the sword, Unto Rabbath of the sons of Ammon, And to Judah, in Jerusalem — the fenced.
21 For stood hath the king of Babylon at the head of the way, At the top of the two ways, to use divination, He hath moved lightly with the arrows, He hath asked at the teraphim, He hath looked on the liver.
22 At his right hath been the divination — Jerusalem, To place battering-rams, To open the mouth with slaughter, To lift up a voice with shouting, To place battering-rams against the gates, To pour out a mount, to build a fortification.
23 And it hath been to them as a false divination in their eyes, Who have sworn oaths to them, And he is causing iniquity to be remembered to be caught.
24 Therefore, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because of your causing your iniquity to be remembered, In your transgressions being revealed, For your sins being seen, in all your doings, Because of your being remembered, By the hand ye are caught.
25 And thou, wounded, wicked one, Prince of Israel, whose day hath come, In the time of the iniquity of the end!
26 Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Turn aside the mitre, and bear away the crown, This — not this — the low make high, And the high make low.
27 An overturn, overturn, overturn, I make it, Also this hath not been till the coming of Him, Whose [is] the judgment, and I have given it.
28 And thou, son of man, prophesy, and thou hast said: Thus said the Lord Jehovah concerning the sons of Ammon, and concerning their reproach: and thou hast said: A sword, a sword, open for slaughter, Polished to the utmost for brightness!
29 In the seeing for thee of a vain thing, In the divining for thee of a lie, To put thee on the necks of the wounded of the wicked, whose day hath come, In the time of the iniquity of the end.
30 Turn [it] back unto its scabbard, In the place where thou wast produced, In the land of thy birth I do judge thee.
31 And I have poured on thee Mine indignation, With fire of My wrath I blow against thee, And have given thee into the hand of brutish men — artificers of destruction.
32 To the fire thou art for fuel, Thy blood is in the midst of the land, Thou art not remembered, For I, Jehovah, have spoken!`